And I have better news in store for you
Than
you expect unseal this letter soon;
There you shall find three of your argosies
Are richly come to harbour suddenly :
You shall not know by what strange accident
I chanced on this letter.

I am dumb.

Ant.
Bass. Were you the doctor and I knew you not?
Gra. Were you the clerk and yet I knew you not?
Ant. Sweet lady, you have given me life and living;
For here I read for certain that my ships
Are safely come to road.

Por.

How now,

Lorenzo!

My clerk hath some good comforts too for you. Ner. Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee.

There do I give to you and Jessica,

From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift,
After his death, of all he dies possess'd of.
Lor. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starved people.

Por.

It is almost morning, And yet I am sure you are not satisfied Of these events at full. Let us go in; And charge us there upon inter'gatories. And we will answer all things faithfully. Gra. Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.

270

280

[Exeunt

Notes

ACT I.

SCENE I. The rich but melancholy Antonio is attended by two friends who do their best to divert him until other friends arrive, in whose hands they leave him.

I. i. 2. It wearies me. C. with I. ii. I, "My little body is aweary of this great world." Antonio looks back on a life that has yielded him little joy, Portia's looking forward is clouded with anxious uncertainty.

I. i. 5. I am to learn. We still use the phrase, “I am yet to learn,” where the idea of necessity is understood. An ellipse with the verb to be is common in Shakespeare, "I will to-morrow to the weird sisters" (Macbeth, III. iv. 133). "I am to thank you for it" (Timon of Athens, I. ii. 111).

I. i. 9. argosies; ships of Ragusa, a port on the eastern coast of the Adriatic, with which England then had much trade. The town was known as Aragousa or Arragosa. The word occurs often in Marlowe's The Jew of Malta :—

"Mine argosy from Alexandria
Loaden with spice and silks.'

I. i. 11. pageants; the allusion is to the enormous machines in the shape of castles, ships, etc., which were drawn about in the ancient shows. I. i. 13. curt'sy; the little ships duck and rock as the big ships fly past them.

I. i. 15. Salanio and Salarino strive to outdo each other in merry exaggeration, hoping to laugh Antonio out of his melancholy.

I. i. 22. cooling my broth. If I blew my broth to cool it, the thought of wind would set me trembling.

I. i. 27. Andrew; the ship was perhaps named from the Italian Admiral, Andrea Doria.

I. i. 32. touching but; just touching. For the sake of the metre "but" is misplaced.

"dangerous rocks."

"Gentle vessel" is in marked contrast with

I. i. 48. Salarino says Antonio is unreasonable in his sadness, "You would not laugh and leap simply because you are not sad, why then be sad

simply because you are not merry? Why not keep the midway path between merriment and sadness? I have no patience with those who run always to extremes."

I. i. 50. Janus; the statue of Janus had two faces, the laughing and the sad. See Illustration.

I. i. 56. Nestor; the oldest of the Greek heroes at Troy, and therefore the least inclined to mirth.

I. i. 62. Your worth is very dear in my regard. Antonio courteously assures Salarino and Sa'ario that he values their friendship highly, but does not deny that Bassanio is a still dearer friend.

I. i. 67, 68. When shall we have a merry meeting again? "You are become quite strangers. Must you go now?"

I. i. 74. "Respect " seems to be used with its root meaning of "beholding". "You look too much upon the world," "The world is too much in your thoughts."

I. i. 84. grandsire cut in alabaster.

In the north aisle of Stratford Church there is a fine monument of one of the Clopton family which may have suggested this image to Shakespeare.

I. i. 87. it is my love that speaks. Gratiano means,

I know you

are not such a man as I describe, but I beg you to avoid the very look of it." I..i. 90. They keep a stubborn silence.

"

I. i. 98. 'They" is to be understood before "would." alluded to, "Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in fire."

Matt. v. 22 is danger of hell

I. i. 102. The good opinion of the foolish multitude is not worth

fishing for.

Gear has the indefinite

I. i. 110. I'll grow a talker for this gear. meaning of subject, matter, business. The line perhaps means, "I will become a talker through this discourse of yours."

I. i. 113. Is that any thing now? The meaning of this is not clear. Johnson suggested "new" for "now." Perhaps it means, "Is there any thing in what he says? Am I really marvellously changed?" (I. i. 76).

I. i. 127. to be abridged; that is "at being abridged." "To" is very frequently used in this way by Shakespeare. Thus in I. i. 40,

"Antonio is sad to think upon his merchandise," meaning "is sad in thinking." So also "to wind about" (I. i. 155).

I. i. 138. Within the eye of honour; if it be such that honour may look on it.

I. i. 146. Pure innocence seems here to mean simple childishness or foolishness.

I. i. 147. a wilful youth; a youth who has persisted in extravagance. I. i. 155. Do not beat about the bush, appeal to my love directly. I. i. 164. sometimes; formerly; the allusion is to Bassanio's visit to Belmont with the Marquis of Montferrat (I. ii. 122).

I. i. 166. nothing undervalued to Cato's daughter. “To” in its origin signifies "motion towards "; here, and in II. vii. 53, it seems to signify "brought to the side of."

I. i. 172, 173. The allusion both here and in III. ii. 237 is to the expedition of Jason in the ship Argo to Colchis in search of the golden fleece.

SCENE II. The situation of Belmont is not fixed. In the novel from which Shakespeare took the plot it is a port, but from the reference to the ferry in III. iv. 53 it seems rather to have been inland and at no great distance from Venice.

I. ii. 8. It is no mean happiness to be seated in the mean. Playing with the diverse meaning of words was a favourite diversion in Shakespeare's time. See in I. ii. 25, "So is the will of a living daughter curbed by the See also I. ii. 71.

will of a dead father."

I. ii. 9. superfluity comes sooner by white hairs. "To come by is "to acquire.” As in I. i. 3, “How I came by it." With the thought expressed here, cf. Prov. xxx. 8, “Give me neither poverty nor riches.”

I. ii. II. The wise sentences of Nerissa are capped by a greater number from Portia.

I. ii. 23. But talk such as this is not of a kind that will help me to choose a husband.

I. ii. 42. In Montaigne's Essays mention is made of a Neapolitan prince famous for horsemanship. The word "appropriation" in 1. 45 does not occur elsewhere in Shakespeare, and its meaning in this passage is not clear. It is generally explained as a special attribute" or addition," so that the prince's accomplishments are specially increased or specially dignified by his skill as a smith.

66

"an

I. ii. 47. A Count Palatine was in London in 1583, and another at a later date married the daughter of James I., but it is doubtful if either is alluded to here.